Awful writing, great action scenes

Rating: 7/10 (18 July 2013)

OK let's cut right to the chase: the dialogue and the actors are awful. And I mean really awful, even for an action movie. The last Die Hard looks like Citizen Kane in comparison. And that's why no one in their right mind can decently put 10/10 on that movie.
But other than that, it kicks a few butts. First, unlike most hero movies out there, it's not limited to the US. That was especially visible in a movie which came out only a few weeks ago, Man of Steel. Here it's only about America, and as usual, Manhattan takes the hit... In Pacific Rim, you have scenes in San Francisco, Sydney, Anchorage, Hong-Kong... A team of Russians, of Japanese, you have Chinese employees, a German name for the robot etc... France is forgotten, God knows why (maybe nobody told them that Tahiti is in the Pacific...), as well as New-Zealand. Now this is a movie that doesn't take itself seriously. The "love story" everyone's fearing is actually hardly developed.
So now for the action. First of all, I've seen it in Imax 3D. This is about the best 3D I've seen in a movie. Far superior to The Avengers (which wasn't made for 3D anyway), Man of Steel, Clash of the Titans or Prometheus to name a few recent movies. It's probably neck and neck with Avatar. Except that there are no "contemplation" scenes, it's about 2 hours of non-stop fighting. So it can be pretty brutal for some viewers. The fights are quite inventive, and not "polished". This is dirty fighting, in storms, at night, in the rain etc... It's not poetic with sunny skies, unlike Evangelion which is clearly one of the influences of the movie though. Hong-Kong is nicely rendered, and the synchronized fighting (again taken from Evangelion, although modified) isn't that ridiculous (the costumes are though). I simply wished they hadn't done what everybody does : when civilians die, they don't show it. When soldiers die, it's fine, you can put it on screen. I'm tired of this...
So all in all, apart from the dialogues where you really have to shut your eyes in disbelief sometimes, it's a good action movie. Certainly better than Iron Man 3 or Man of Steel, because it's unpretentious.